EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC 2GB Graphics Card Review

On the lookout for a gaming GPU at around the $250 mark? Need it to handle games at 1080p in great detail or 1440p at good detail? EVGA has a solution for both of those needs. It comes to us in the form of the GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked – complete with ACX cooler. Read on to see how it compares to NVIDIA’s reference model.

Power & Temperatures, Final Thoughts

To test graphics cards for both their power consumption and temperature at load, we utilize a couple of different tools. On the hardware side, we use a trusty Kill-a-Watt power monitor which our GPU test machine plugs into directly. For software, we use Futuremark’s 3DMark to stress-test the card, and AIDA64 to monitor and record the temperatures.

To test, the general area around the chassis is checked with a temperature gun, with the average temperature recorded. Once that’s established, the PC is turned on and left to site idle for ten minutes. At this point, AIDA64 is opened along with 3DMark. We then kick-off a full suite run, and pay attention to the Kill-a-Watt when the test reaches its most intensive interval (GT 1) to get the load wattage.

The reference cooler NVIDIA uses on its GTX 760 isn’t nearly as impressive as the ones it uses on its GTX 770+, but for a mid-range card, that’s to be expected. Despite that reference card having a decent enough cooler, though, EVGA’s ACX blows it out-of-the-water, shaving 13°C off of the load and 3°C off of the idle.

Power-wise, both GTX 760s are about equal, with an expected bump to EVGA’s given the clock-boost.

Final Thoughts

I opened this article with a statement that today, a $250 graphics card is nothing to scoff at – something all of the results featured within the bulk of the pages in the article back up. NVIDIA’s reference-clocked GTX 760 can handle all of today’s games at good detail at 1080p resolution, and in many cases can handle 1440p as well (I’d wager that when we’re talking current-gen, you could expect to reliably run 1440p in half of the games out there while retaining good detail levels).

With that being the case, EVGA’s clock-boosted Superclocked card makes things even sweeter, albeit not by a huge margin. As the Best Playable page highlighted, there are some cases where EVGA’s SC card could handle a slight bump to a graphics setting, but for the most part you should treat this card as one that will give a slight performance boost in general.

In addition to that boost, EVGA’s ACX cooler managed to drop temperatures by a nice margin, and despite its higher clocks, it barely drew any extra power from the wall (+3 watts).

At $249 SRP, NVIDIA’s GTX 760 is a fantastic card for anyone looking for higher-end 1080p gaming, or 1440p gaming in most non-FPS titles. Is EVGA’s Superclocked edition worth the extra $10? I’d say that it is. A much-improved cooler and higher clocks for a meager $10? That’s a no-brainer.

However, I can’t end this article without yet another reminder that an AMD Radeon R9 280 review is en route. That card is priced just about the same as this one, so I’m aiming to get that article up within the next week since it’s now kind of timely thanks to this one. Stay tuned.